CM3's Argentina Adventure

Museum, Bosque, and Cathedral

It's 11:30pm and I finally get some time to blog. Camila is sleeping in her stroller, while Mika is awake in bed next to a sleeping Mike. Our hours here have been crazy, seldom getting to bed before midnight and yet usually waking up by 9 am. The kids are exhausted, though I've managed to take naps the last couple of days.

Mike hasn't been able to do much blogging either, so I figure I'd take on the task. As you may have surmised, our first day here we didn't do much, just hang out with Gladys and go to the travel agency. Our second day we went to the zoo, then hang out with Gladys, then with my cousin Mariana and her new baby and finally at my aunt Stella's house. Yesterday we followed a similar pattern, except that we managed to do even less :) It took us quite a while to get out of the hotel. It always does, getting two kids changed and dressed, the two of us showered and the room in a clean enough state that they can actually make the beds takes at least an hour of our mornings. Breakfast at the hotel is also often a slow affair as we have to take turns eating and holding Camila.

When we were finally out, we went to Glady's house, and then we went together to run an errand. We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon at her house, just hanging out. I was feeling nostalgic about all the items in her house that were so omnipresent in my childhood. Little things such as the measuring spoons, the fan, the clock, nothing too fancy or beautiful - but all the more noteworthy for that. These everyday items were such a part of my landscape for 14 years while growing up, only to go away for over 20 years and suddenly come back. I'm still in a place of emotional dissonance. I see them, use them, and it's hard not to find myself back there, 20 years ago. I think only now it's becoming clear to me, however, that that's a chimera. Life in La Plata may look the same as back then (only I have my own family along and a lot more spending money), but it's not. I'm no longer a little kid, my parents are not here anymore and will never be, and Gladys will die only too soon (she's 88, I can be optimistic, but her time is limited of necessity). I fantasize about coming back and living here, but it won't happen, and if it did, it wouldn't be the same. And yet, how lucky am I that my childhood was so full of happy moments, people and places that I can occupy so much time evoking them!

Anyway, that's how I feel when we stay at Glady's place for long. As for her, she looks so old, so frail, so tired, so confused. And yet, she's still amazing for being so old. I so wish I could stay longer with her, and I'm so glad I did come. I'll certainly have to be back next year.

Anyway, Luisa, the woman who takes care of her, made lunch, but for one reason or another we didn't end up eating it until well after 1pm. It was milanesas, quite good and yet very prosaic. Everyday Argentine food. As much as I enjoy it, I couldn't deal with having to eat it every day. How a people can have such a limited cuisine is beyond me - and yet, these are my people.

After lunch Mike had to work, so I took the girls to the Plaza Moreno. This is the plaza in the center of town, a couple of blocks from Gladys' house. On the one side of it is the Gothic Cathedral La Plata is known for, and on the other our beautiful municipal building. Growing up, the plaza was best known for being the home to tons of pigeons, pigeons I loved to chase even as a very young child. I don't know why, but the pigeons are gone. They were already gone last time we came here, and I think it's quite sad though clearly more hygienic. There are still a few here and there, but no enough to actually chase. We did manage to see a dead pigeon, however.

At the plaza, Mika played on the playground, which invariably consist of swings, see-saws, a merry-go-round and slides. No weird climbing things here. They are all made of metal and wood and they are the same ones that were up when I was a little girl. They have been painted since, however. I put Camila on the baby swing, but the small chain wasn't enough to prevent her from sliding out of the swing, so that wasn't too successful. We played a bit on the see-saw, but I think Mika grew tired of it. In any case, holding onto Camila wasn't fun so we didn't stay there for long. We explored the rest of the plaza and then I decided Camila really needed a nap and she wasn't getting it on the stroller so we headed back to the hotel.

Mike, to say the least, wasn't happy to see us. He'd been wanting to work and he was afraid he wouldn't be able to do it with us there. But he needn't have worried, the three of us fell asleep almost immediately and he went out to work at an internet cafe (locutorio) anyway. He also got the sim card for his cell phone activated, so now we have a phone. Email us if you want the number. I fear, however, that we may need to get a different sim card when we get to Salta. Fortunately, they are free (we just pay for the pre-paid calling cards). We woke up soon before he came to the hotel and then we were off to get a calling card (he didn't realize he had to buy one) and then to visit some of my other relatives, in this case my uncle Mikita and aunt Maria del Carmen. They have three kids, two of them are very busy and we got to see nothing of my cousin Carolina (a design student and scout leader) and very little of my cousin Ernesto (a computer student and singer in a band) - but we did get to hang out with my cousin Noelia, the youngest of the bunch and mother to three-year-old Joaquin. This was great for Mika, as he's the closest semi-cousin she has to her age. Too bad he's all the way in Argentina. As usual, Maria del Carmen couldn't have been nicer and more inviting, and we had a great time catching up and talking. Well, at least I did. I can only imagine how painfully boring these visits are for Mike. But he's a great trooper and never complains.

It's funny because before I came last time I didn't think I was very much interested in making links with my family, none of whom I'd seen in twenty years and many of whom I had only known as babies. And yet, it's been amazingly pleasant to reconnect with them, relive old memories and make new ones. Once again I find myself in some kind of cognitive dissonance, though. I left very abruptly some 22 years ago, so my images of my family, as well as my city and my country, are pretty much frozen in time. My history here is discreet. They, however, stayed and the point where I left is just one more point, probably with little significance. So we can talk about the past, and that shared past is for me everything, but just a little for them. And yet, as we talk, we feel so intimate (Argentines can become very intimate very quickly) that those 20 years seem to not be there. But they are, my little cousins are all grown up now and I wasn't there to see it - and they weren't there to see my life evolve. It's really a weird feeling.

Anyway, we had made plans to have dinner with Mariana and her husband at a restaurant, and Noelia kindly agreed to look after the two girls, so we both departed in different taxis.

Dinner with Mariana and her husband was great - for me. Mike didn't have to look after the girls this time, but he had troubles following much of the conversation. Poor baby. We ate, we talked, we drank, and suddenly three hours had gone by and we had barely thought about our girls. I hadn't talked to Noelia as to how long they'd be there and I knew the two girls would be exhausted - and they get cranky when tired. So we headed to Noelia's house to pick them up.

Much to our surprise, they were both awake and happy. Apparently once again Camila was a perfect angel and didn't say a peep. This I don't understand. When we're around she complains most of the time, and yet she seems to be great when she's babysat by others. Not by our friend Desiree, though. Weird, weird, weird. In any case, they all had fun, including Noelia. We'll certainly have to do that again.

Well, I've spent over half an hour writing about yesterday and I still have to cover today. Mika and Mike are sleeping on the bed, but I keep hearing Camila stir in the stroller and I know she'll soon wake up and I'll have to take her to bed. I daresay that then I'll just go to sleep. I've been really enjoying falling asleep, I always seem so exhausted and I do it by reliving part of my childhood in my mind. But I do want to blog a bit more.

This morning after we finally got out of our room (it was after 10am, Mike and Mika missed breakfast) we headed to the bosque, a huge park on one side of town. It had rained the previous night and everything was wet, so our strollers got pretty muddy. I wanted Mike and Mika to go on a boat ride, but the people selling tickets weren't there by the time we made it to the lake (after 11:15). As Mika was walking on the wood platform next to the boats, she screamed out in terror, and Mike consoled her. After some initial confusion as to what happened, we discovered Mika had been bitten or stung by something. The area around the wound quickly puffed up a bit and turned red. We had actually brought some insect bite medication, so I rubbed it on Mika's arm and she held it. After Mika calmed down, we headed to the cave. I used to love to play there when I was a kid, but Mika and Mike only spent a few minutes playing there, and then a bit more time playing on the playground. Once again Camila was a problem, none of the structures are appropriate for her and she grows bored otherwise. She was also very sleepy and cranky.

We decided to head to the museum. La Plata has a few things it's known for, locally at least. The Cathedral is one of them, the university another, and the museum a third. This Natural Science museum is pretty large and occupies one of those classical buildings that I so love. But I was soon reminded it's not the buildings but the people that make me love this country.

You have probably heard me talk about how child friendly Argentina is before. And indeed, it is. You can breastfeed anywhere and nobody thinks it's weird. Kids are everywhere adults are, and nobody thinks they are out of place. And people are constantly interacting with kids. I have two very cute little girls, so in the US people often say things to them. But those people are usually old ladies or other mothers. Here it's everyone. When Camila cries, the reaction I get is not one of "shut that kid up" or a "I feel for you" like I get in the states, but rather I get people who try to engage Camila so she stops crying. And as she's such a social creature, it works. I'm pretty sure that Camila would be happy here.

But the level of child friendliness and niceness goes much beyond that. So today we get to the museum with two cranky, tired kids and two filthy strollers. I didn't want to bring them inside, as I didn't want to dirty the place, so I asked the people at the door if I could instead leave them outside. They said sure, but then they felt that both Camila and I would be too uncomfortable if I carried her, so they took and broom and cleaned the stroller's wheels so I could bring her in it! I have never had anyone do anything remotely like that for me in the states.

The museum was great, we got to see lots of dinosaurs and extinct animals and bones, as well as lots of stuffed animals local to Argentina. This included one weird dog-like creature with long legs we'd seen at the zoo previously. Not that I remember its name. We stayed there for an hour or so, but I grew tired and decided that I wanted to go to the hotel and take a nap. As a plus, on the way out, Mike got pooped on by one of the many pigeons roosting near the entrance.

It'd started raining by then, and Mika was complaining, and I was kind of hungry, so we stopped at the Cerveceria Modelo for a light lunch. Service there is not fast, but Camila slept most of the time and we avoided most of the heavy rain. Once we got to the hotel both Mika and I were more than ready for a nap. I think both of us fell asleep instantly, leaving Mike to deal with Camila. She slept a little, enough for him to blog a bit, but mostly she stayed awake and demanding his attention. By the time we woke up after 5:30 he was quite frustrated with her. Well, it's good for him to appreciate just how tiring/annoying this immensely wonderful and cute little girl can be.

When we finally woke up and got out we went to the Cathedral and visited it inside, Mika liked it quite a bit and had several questions about the princess (virgin) there.

We were too late to visit the museum below and take the elevator up - we'll have to do it next time - but at least we were able to escape another flow of heavy rain by having drinks at the cafe, though it was quite expensive. I really like the idea of a Cathedral with a cafe.

When the rain stopped we finally headed to Gladys, it was probably around 8pm by then. I had meant to take her out to dinner, but Luisa had made empanadas so we stayed there to eat. Her empanadas were good but not as good as mine :) We hung out for quite a while, had some ice cream (which is horrendously expensive, $22 or U$7 per kilo, about a gallon) but it's yummy and they deliver, and then came back to the hotel. And that is that.

Our plan for tomorrow was to go to Lujan, a city famous for its virgin. Mike is not interested in the virgin but in its zoo. He saw pictures of a field trip Maria del Carmen had taken there with her students (she's a teacher), and it looked really cool to him. Especially the part where you get to pet the lions. But I just can't figure out how to get there. There may or may not be a train that goes there from Buenos Aires, and there are a couple of buses, also leaving from Buenos Aires, but I have no idea when they leave. I don't quite understand how such an important city can be so badly connected but I suspect that most people who go there do it through their churches or by car. I did go there by bus with my grandma when I was a little girl, but alas, I don't remember the details of our transportation.

So we are without plans for tomorrow. Maybe we'll go to Buenos Aires. We'll see.

So I've finished blogging (1/2 hour per day!) and Camila is still asleep. I'm quite tired myself. I guess I'll straighten up Mike and Mika, move her to the bed and go to sleep.

Oh, one last note. Camila has discovered the pleasure of the bidet. Mika was the first one to notice it. She was quite curious and asked me what it was. She's been very willing to use it herself. But then yesterday Camila discovered it. I turned on the central water for her (Argentine bidets have a little hole in the middle which shoots several streams of water) and she had a blast putting her hand in and out of the water. Then she found out how she could turn the knob and make the water go higher and lower. It was fun until she shot water to her face and got herself completely soaked. I was proud.

Anyway, nighty night.

The last couple of days have mostly spent with family: tea with Gladys, hanging out with Mariana and her new (very large baby), dinner with Estella, Marisol, Noelia, Joaquin, Sasha, Pancho, etc., and then hanging out with Mikita and family, dinner with Mariana while Noelia babysat the kids.

Tea with Gladys is always a joy. In addition to tea, we had ham and cheese sandwiches, some with pineapple, and some with tomato. The pineapple was a new thing to me. Only Margarita seemed to like them. There was of course a tasty pastry smothered with dulce de leche as well. If you have a sweet tooth, Argentina is quite accommodating.

After tea, Mariana came over with her three-month old baby, who is nearly as big as Camila. No kidding. I'm still having trouble understanding all the Spanish I hear, but I did hear that she only gained like 20 pounds during her pregnancy, and lost it very quickly. It all seems to have directly gone to her kid. Alas, while taking pictures, I left the camera in Mariana's stroller, and when she left, so did the camera.

Dinner at Estella's was very nice with pizza, cheese, chicken, and of course, empanadas. They were all so very nice and Pancho was wonderful with Mika. Mika loved hanging out with eight-year-old Sasha, even if she couldn't understand everything she said. Marisol showed us videotape of Salta, where we plan on spending some time next week. She stayed there for a month with a friend. Estella and Pancho also traveled there so Marga picked up some tips on what to see and what is not worth it.

Of course, we got back to the hotel quite late, which seems to have become the norm. The kids seem to be adjusting well to the new schedule. Afternoon naps are becoming common for Marga and the kids.

Argentina and basketbal

I seem to recall Argentina doing pretty well in basketball at the last olympics. Oh wait - not pretty well - they won the gold medal. Anyway, a basketball team from Bahia Blanca is staying at our hotel: El Club El Nacional - Bahia Blanca. I have no idea why I would bother to write this down. Perhaps it was the bottle of wine at our very nice dinner.

La Plata Zoo

Yesterday, we spent the morning at the La Plata Zoo. Entry was just two pesos for adults with children under 12 free. It's cheap, but when you see the animal enclosures, you know why. Unlike most zoos in America, most people here seem to feed the animals. I think it's a cultural thing, but it may also be because you can get closer to some of the animals here than you can at most zoos. For example, at one of the monkey enclosures, you can get up right next to the cage, and the monkeys will stick their fingers out, hoping to get food. Mika touched the monkey's fingers, but somewhat reluctantly.

The appearance of the zoo gives you the feeling that it once was a grand place. There are beautiful statues and buildings and even fountains throughout the zoo. But everything is run down and the animal enclosures don't reflect the new concern for the animals that most zoos demonstrate these days. Many of the enclosures absolutely reek of feces, including the flamingos, which seem to be losing their pinkish color.

On a weekday, the zoo is pretty empty, which was nice. Camila was thrilled to see some of the animals up close, like llamas, coatis, and monkeys. There are also geese and peacocks all over the place. When Mika first approached a goose, instead of running away, it got up and hissed at her. That scared her, until I got closer to her and the goose backed off. Mika got to feed a goose, but unfortunately, the first time, the goose bit her finger and scared the hell out of her. I convinced her to try a different technique a second time and like a trooper, she gave it another try and found it very cool.

The Nandus (rheas) were very cool because there were so many of them in one of few nice large enclosures. There was also a nice platform where you look over the entire enclosure. Unfortunately, one of the nandu eggs had broken where it was easily spotted by us all, and we got to explain that the baby bird was dead.

The elephant at the zoo is a single female that has been there since Marga was a little girl. Its nice that the elephant has lived that long, but was a sad lonely existence for just one elephant. Same goes for the one giraffe and the one bengal tiger.

Just the morning at the zoo left us all a little sunburnt because, being the horrible parents we are, we forgot to buy any suncreen and apply it before going out. This morning, that will be our first order of business.

After the zoo, it was lunch at one of the sidewalk restaurants at the zoo. We ordered chicken, vacio, and asado. I had the asado, Marga the vacio, and the chicken was for Mika and Camila. Mika wanted milk, but nobody here drinks milk with meals, so there is none to be had, except at markets. Mika had water and some citrus drink.

Then it was off to do family stuff. More on that later, perhaps.

Some Argentine food is sooooo good

I took Mike's computer so I could blog and then I wrote a ton of nostalgic stuff that is better left for my blog. Meanwhile Mike couldn't blog and went to sleep, so... I'll just recap our day.

We woke up around 8:30am, but I thought the clock was on California time. I was too tired to figure out what 8:30 plus 5 would be, so somehow I ended up thinking it was 11:30. I was a bit freaked as I told Gladys I'd see her in the early afternoon and that would give us no time, but soon enough Mike woke up (OK, Camila woke him) and I found out the truth.

We took showers, got dressed, got kids ready and went down for breakfast: bread, toast, facturas and medialunas, plus coffee and some imitation orange juice I didn't bother trying. So it's not the breakfast at the Corregidor but this place is considerably cheaper.

And this leads me to another subject I wanted to write about yesterday: food. There are tons of great-tasting stuff in the US, but there are some truly delicious foods in Argentina, some that you wouldn't expect. Yesterday, for example, we had strawberries and cream for dessert. When I was a kid strawberries and cream was my favorite dessert, what I always ordered when we ate at restaurants. It felt expensive and extremely decadent. Just last summer, as strawberries proliferated through the farmer's market and Mike kept bringing box after box home, I started asking myself why I'd been such a fan of that dessert. I couldn't quite recall, every time I'd fix them for myself I'd end up leaving them to rot. Well, last night I remembered. The strawberries here are sooooo much better than the ones in California. They are smaller, of course, and completely red and so sweet and strong tasting. And the cream! Dairy products just taste different in Argentina, and Argentine cream is great by itself. The two together were heavenly. Both Mike and Mika loved them as well. I'm definitely going to have to have more.

Of course, everyone knows how good Argentine meat and dulce de leche-based products are, so I don't have to write about that, but I also really enjoy the bread. It's tastier, more balanced than the french bread at American stores, and it's great toasted. I don't need to tell you by now that the butter is also delicious, as, of course, is the dulce de leche. I ate a couple of facturas but the bread and jam were best.

Argentina pizza is also very good - I think the addition of marinated red peppers, green olives and oregano to most pizzas make them particularly tasty, but the dough is too crunchy for my taste.

Dulce de leche ice cream. Need I say more?

We Finally Arrived

It's 11:30 PM on our first day in Argentina. Mike is reading books to Mika in bed, Camila finally fell asleep (I'm expecting her to wake up at any time for her first night feeding) and I'm blogging. Mike, most likely, will blog too. I expect him, like last time, to do most of the day-to-day blogging, telling about our days and his impressions of Argentina. Granted, those expressions won't be as new or have as much wonder as he's already been here once. But I know they speak more to our American audience. Plus he likes to do it.

I figure that instead, I'll write about whatever I want, an incident, a feeling or emotion, the cost of things. You know, the sort of thing you do in a blog-blog, and I haven't done for a while.

Let me start by saying the flight over here was hard. I'd stay up until 2 am getting the house clean and last minute things done, and then I'd woken up before 7 am, so I barely had any sleep going into our flights. Mike, however, had none. He'd had some work to finish before leaving and he pulled an all-nighter. We were both exhausted.

The first flight, 3 hours to Dallas, felt much longer than it actually was. Camila slept a few minutes at the beginning of the flight, but then was up and about until almost the end. Mike slept and keeping her happy and quiet was exhausting. The second flight, 10+ hours to Buenos Aires, was as long as it felt. Camila, once again, had difficulties falling asleep - she didn't manage to until after dinner. She then slept on the tray tables in front of Mika and me, but as she shifted or I shifted she'd wake up and I had to sooth her again. I got an hour or two of sleep max - but fortunately Mike got many more. Mika did great, she was fussy when she was tired, but all in all dealt with the long, boring flight wonderfully. Once again, we brought too many toys and too many snacks. People loved Camila. As usual, they congratulated me on how quiet my girls were (I'm sure the guys immediately in front of us would have disagreed) and several people stopped to say how amazingly cute
Camila was. It is hard to resist her.

So once again, even in the flight, I remarked to myself and to Mike just how different the attitudes of Argentines and Americans are towards children. In the US both my girls get complimented (the baby most often now) but it's almost always done by either old women or moms of small children. And only rarely the interactions go beyond a compliment. In Argentina, and even in the plane to Argentina, I'm amazed at how much attention my kids gather from men (mostly older men, whose kids are probably no longer this young, but still...). Not only they compliment her but they engage them, try to make Camila smile, sure, but also do things. Ask Mika questions, have conversations. This practically never happens in the US. I wonder if it's just a genetic/cultural difference or that American men are afraid of being thought of as child molestors. In any case, it so contributes to the feeling that children are welcomed, part of the social milieu, not just appendages to their parents. I so, so enjoy that. I'm also hoping that this engagement by strangers will encourage Mika to speak spanish. It may already be encouraging her to be more outgoing (yeah, like she needs to) - she's been quite open to interactions with others.

She was also wonderful towards Gladys. She gave her a huge hug when she first saw her, and a couple of other ones later. Completely unprompted too.

Mike is falling asleep, maybe he won't blog tonight.

In any case, we survived the plane trip and the taxi trip home. Mike slept half the time - Camila didn't.

After checking in and freshening up we went to Glady's house. In the way there I started feeling kind of gray about the whole visit, the city. Actually, the feelings had started in the taxi drive over. When I came back to La Plata after a 20 year absence 2 1/2 years ago I was amazed to see how everything pretty much looked and felt the same. This time I expected it, but it made me feel sad. Don't platenses deserve better? Like so many sidewalks are broken, they've always been broken but why should they? And so many houses (including my aunt's building) so need a new coat of paint. La Plata is so third-worldish in so many ways, quaint as a visitor, but I'm sure it gets old as a person who lives there. The decay, constant stay of decay, brought me down.

And then I was feeling at home, like this is my city, the city of my childhood, a city I can feel in my bones. But it felt empty, because my parents weren't here. Last trip I experienced the city on my own as an adult, and I did the same later today, but at first, when I saw the Legistlature Palace, I felt like my mom should be there. Suddenly I longed for them, for them here, for our family when we were children. And I realized that no matter how much the city might look and feel the same to me, it's not the same. I am older, my childhood is gone, and so is my mommy and my daddy (they're alive, don't worry, but though they're my parents, that dynamic is no longer the same). And I can no longer go back. And it's sad. I knew that, of course, but for the first time it became so real to me.

Perhaps my mood also colored my first impressions of Gladys. She seemed so old (she'll be 88 in January, mind you), so frail, so forgetful. Her apartment once again looked so small and modest - whereas as a child it'd felt huge and so comfortable. It's comforting when things look the same after thirty years, but also disturbing. Specially when their owner doesn't.

I felt better after an afternoon nap. We went to the centro, walked around, did some shopping, and the energy of the town and the friendliness of the people won me over as it had last time. I'm once again amazed at how polite shopkeepers and other people in customer service are. When they say their niceties it doesn't feel like it's by rote as it's in America. It really feels like you're part of a community.

And Gladys looked better - if frail - and her apartment nicer - if modest. And I felt so comfortable.

And now, for another matter, I thought I'd start recording how much $ I'm spending to get a better idea for next time. Today's tally is $100 for the taxi ride over (I didn't have Argentine $ so the taxi driver said to not worry, I could leave the fare with Gladys and he'd get it later on the week - like that every happens back home), $100 for the hotel (I haven't paid yet, and I'm not sure if that's the right ammount), $20 for lunch (1/2 a chicken, a large slice of vacio, a chorizo and a coke, the actual amount where some cents over but they "forgave" them), about $7 for 3 ice creams (how can the dulce de leche granizado be sooooooo good? why can't I make it like that?), $2 for a balloon Mika popped soon after, $5 for a foam puzzle of Argentina, $5 for drinks later and $15 for pizza and empanadas for dinner. So today's total is... about $255 or U$78 or so (if I can do math). Not bad.

Final notes. It's hot and humid, though not as hot & humid as it's gonna get. Guys don't seem to wear shorts out. There is a mosquito in our room, according to a nature program I saw on TV they like to bite people with foot odor, women who are ovulating, blonds and increase their activities during the full moon. I think I'm gonna get bitten tonight. Night night.

Camila is up to her favorite things.

Mika was tired but was a real trooper on both flights.

Camila waits patiently while Marga gets some vacio, chorizo, and chicken.

Mika gives La Plata a rare treat: herself.